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| Seen is a cover of Rep. Moon Jae-in's book "1219, the end is the beginning" in which the main opposition Democratic Party lawmaker recollected the Dec. 19 presidential poll where he competed with President Park Geun-hye. |
By Jun Ji-hye
Rep. Moon Jae-in of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) stepped up his attack on President Park Geun-hye, claiming she has become a "scary President" who rules in a suppressive and authoritarian manner, Sunday.
Moon said that the Park government's attempts to cover up the truth behind the National Intelligence Service's (NIS) alleged election interference has added fuel to
criticism about the legitimacy of the administration.
Cheong Wa Dae reacted strongly to Moon's comments, saying the DP's former presidential candidate ignored a ground rule of democratic procedure as he called into question the presidential poll.
Senior presidential press secretary Lee Jung-hyun, said, "Park completely went along with the result when she was defeated by Lee Myung-bak in the party's primary race to pick a presidential candidate in 2007. The late President Kim Dae-jung did the same after being defeated in the 1992 presidential poll. This is democracy a real leader needs to follow."
He added that the public was not scared of President Park who is devoting herself to creating more jobs and improving the people's economic situation, as well as conducting various diplomatic activities.
"The people would be more scared of the possible failure of the rival parties to approve Park's budget proposal by the end of this year due to the non-cooperation of the DP," said Lee.
In his book titled "1219, the end is the beginning," the former presidential candidate of the DP called the NIS's suspected smear campaign against him "unprecedented" that even previous authoritarian governments did not employ.
The book in which Rep. Moon recollected the Dec. 19 presidential poll, will be published on Dec. 9.
"The Park administration responded to the NIS scandal with attempts to cover up the truth and interfere in the investigation," said Moon. "This resulted in questioning of the authenticity of the Park administration."
The first-term lawmaker said the Park government is maintaining and even expanding the wrongdoings of her predecessor Lee Myung-bak.
"This could cause another illegal, unfair election in the 2017 presidential poll," he said.
He also claimed the Park government showed regressive traits more seriously than the Lee administration.
"After the poll, I seriously wanted the Park government to succeed. But it achieved little in all areas _ democracy, national unity, democratization of the economy, welfare, inter-Korean relations and the view of history," said Moon.
The former chief of staff to the late liberal President Roh Moo-hyun said that Park these days seems like a different person from the one who competed with him in the presidential election.
"Dignity has disappeared in her politics," said Moon.
However, Moon did not blame the NIS incident for his defeat in the poll, saying that a lack of his capacity and preparation should be blamed.
"I think I lacked the passion to become the president because I decided to run in the presidential election quite late. I was not able to sufficiently prepare campaign strategies," he said.
On Friday, he hinted at running in the next presidential election, saying he and the DP should make preparations step by step this time.
In a meeting with a group of reporters, he said, "The power change must be accomplished in 2017. I will not avoid playing a role."
Commenting on independent lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo, who joined forces with him in the presidential election and recently officially announced the creation of a new political party, Moon said, "Ahn will have to combine forces with the DP someday to counter the ruling Saenuri Party."
Watchers say Moon and Ahn, two formidable opposition candidates in the 2012 poll, have already begun a competition to be a single opposition candidate in the next election.
